Early life

Murphy was born on November 9, 1965, in Indianapolis, Indiana,[1] where he was raised in an Irish Catholic family.[2][3] He attended Catholic school from first through eighth grade,[2] and graduated from Warren Central High School in Indianapolis. He has described his mother J. Andy Murphy as a "beauty queen who left it all to stay at home and take care of her two sons". She wrote five books and worked in communications for over 20 years before retiring. His father worked in the newspaper industry as a circulation director before he retired after 30 years.[4]

After coming out as gay, Murphy saw his first therapist, who found nothing wrong with him other than being "too precocious for his own good".[2][4] During a 2012 interview on Inside the Actors Studio, Murphy claimed that he secretly dated "a lot of football players" in high school.[5] He performed with a choir as a child, which would later inform his work on Glee.[2] Murphy attended Indiana University Bloomington, where he majored in journalism.[1]

Television series

Popular and Nip/Tuck

Murphy started his career in television with the teen comedy series Popular, which he co-created with Gina Matthews. The series premiered on The WB on September 29, 1999[6] and ran for two seasons, ending in 2001. He then created the FX drama series Nip/Tuck, which premiered on July 18, 2003. In 2004, Murphy earned his first Primetime Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Directing for a Drama Series.[4] Murphy took the show's signature line, "Tell me what you don't like about yourself," from a plastic surgeon he met when he was a journalist researching an undercover story on plastic surgery in Beverly Hills. The series ended after six seasons in 2010.

Glee

On May 19, 2009, Murphy's musical comedy-drama series, Glee, premiered on Fox. He co-created the series with Brad Falchuk and Ian Brennan. In its early seasons, the show was critically lauded.[7] Murphy won his first Primetime Emmy Award for directing the pilot episode.[8] The series concluded in 2015 following its sixth season.[9] Murphy was one of four executive producers on the reality television series The Glee Project, which premiered on Oxygen on June 12, 2011.[10] The show featured a group of contestants vying for the prize of a seven-episode arc on Glee, with someone being eliminated each week, until the winner is chosen in the final episode. The show was renewed for a second season, which ended up being its last.[11]

The New Normal

Murphy and Glee co-executive producer Ali Adler created the half-hour comedy The New Normal, which premiered on NBC on September 10, 2012. The series was based on Murphy's own experiences of having a child via surrogate, with the main characters, Bryan and David, named for Ryan and his husband.[12] The series was ultimately cancelled after one season.[13]

Anthology series and Scream Queens

Murphy and Falchuk created the anthology series American Horror Story, which premiered on FX on October 5, 2011. Some of the same cast have played different characters in different settings each subsequent season.[14][15] In October 2014, FX greenlit a companion anthology series, American Crime Story, which Murphy and Falchuk executive produce. The series premiered on February 2, 2016.[16]

Murphy, Falchuk and Brennan next co-created the comedy-horror series Scream Queens, which premiered on Fox on September 22, 2015.[17] The series was cancelled after two seasons.[18][19]

The series premiered on FX on June 3, 2018, attracting critical acclaim.[23][24] The first season boasted the largest cast of transgender actors ever for a scripted network series with over 50 transgender characters, all played by trans actors.[25][26] On July 12, 2018, it was announced that the series had been renewed for a second season, which is set to premiere sometime in 2019.[27]

Unsold pilots

Murphy has also created/produced a couple of failed pilots. The WB sitcom pilot St. Sass, starring Delta Burke and Heather Matarazzo, was not picked up. In 2008, Murphy wrote and directed the FX pilot Pretty/Handsome, which also was not picked up.[32] By April 2013, HBO had given a pilot order for Murphy's sexuality drama Open, which began filming in late 2013.[33] By September 2014, HBO had opted not to proceed to series.[34]

Murphy has several films in development: Dirty Tricks, a political comedy, One Hit Wonders, a musical comedy, and a sequel to The Normal Heart. In 2014, Murphy was developing a feature film of the life of reclusive heiress Huguette Clark, based on the best-selling book Empty Mansions: The Mysterious Life of Huguette Clark and the Spending of a Great American Fortune.[38]

In an interview about his show Pose, which is set in 1987, during the height of the initial AIDS Crisis, Murphy described his concern about contracting HIV while at college, getting tested frequently even when celibate.[41]

Murphy has been married to photographer David Miller since July 2012.[42] On December 24, 2012, Murphy and Miller welcomed their first child, a son named Logan Phineas, via a surrogate. In October 2014, they welcomed their second son, Ford.[43]

In 2017, Murphy launched the Half Initiative, which aims to make Hollywood more inclusive by creating equal opportunities for women and minorities behind the camera. Less than one year after launching Half, Ryan Murphy Television’s director slate hired 60% women directors and 90% met it's women & minority requirement. In conjunction with the hiring goals, the Initiative launched the Half-Director Mentorship Program in which every director on every Ryan Murphy Television production mentors emerging women and minority directors through pre-production and post-production along with offering a significant stipend for their commitment. Filmmaker Kristin Fairweather, the first recipient of a HALF award, described her experience in an interview with Screen Comment's Rudy Cecera[45].

Netflix executive

In 2018, he was hired by Netflix with a compensation of $300 million for a period of five years.[46][47]

Controversy

Ryan Murphy has had some public arguments with famous bands and their members, including Slash from Guns N' Roses, Dave Grohl of the Foo Fighters, and Kings of Leon lead singer, Caleb Followill, and drummer, Nathan Followill.[48] These arguments have stemmed from the musicians declining Murphy when asked to have their music covered on Glee.
Speaking to Taylor Hawkins in 2011, Grohl stated, "The Glee guy, what a f---ing jerk. Slash was the first one. He wanted to do Guns ‘n’ Roses and Slash is like, ‘I hate f---ing musicals. It’s worse than Grease.’ Then [Murphy's] like, ‘Well, of course he’d say that, he’s a washed up ol’ rock star, that’s what they f---ing do.’ And then Kings of Leon say, ‘No, we don’t want to be on your show.’ And then he’s like, ‘Snotty little assholes…’ And it’s just like, Dude, maybe not everyone loves Glee. Me included.” [49]

Awards and nominations

Emmy Awards

Ryan Murphy has won 6 Emmy awards out of 28 nominations[50] as a producer, writer and director.